Body Cells

The following article is a research paper I came across that reminded me of Paul's teachings in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13. After the article I have included the Scriptures in the Message translation. As you read the article, what is in brackets is what the Holy Spirit shared with me. May you be blessed, Audrey Cells of the Human Body by Jim Cornish, (Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, 2003.) Except for germs like viruses and bacteria (disease, enemy of God), just about every living thing on earth is made of cells (members). The medical profession refers to cells as "the building blocks of life." Most forms of life are made with many cells. It is estimated that the average human adult body (one body) contains around 10 trillion cells (many membered). Except for red blood cells (Jesus Christ), all other cells in our bodies have a nucleus. Because it controls what the cells does, the nucleus is often called the brains of the cell (we have the mind of Christ). In four square centimetres of skin there are 3 metres of nerve fibers, 1300 nerve cells, 100 sweat glands, 3 million cells, and 3 metres of blood vessels. Except for your brain cells (the mind of Christ), 50,000,000 of the cells in your body will have died and been replaced with others, all while you have been reading this sentence. The central nervous system is connected to every part of the body (Jesus Christ, who died once and for all) by 43 pairs of nerves. Twelve pairs (Old Testament and New Testament) go to and from the brain (mind of Christ), with 31 pairs going from the spinal cord. There are nearly 63 kilometres of nerves running through our bodies. Messages travel along the nerves as electrical impulses (the word of God is a two edged sword). They travel at speeds up to 400 kilometres per hour. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body (see how much spiritual activity is going on just inside one person? Look how much power of God is taking place when two or three people or members of the body of Christ come toegether). Cells (each member of the body of Christ) work to keep us (the body of Christ) healthy and alive (the power of life and death are in our tongue controled by what is in our heart/mind). As soon as they wear out, they are replaced by new ones.This is most noticeable with our skin (generation to generation, age to age). Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days; that is almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime ("But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Peter 3:8). But not all types of cells are replaced. It is generally believed that once brain cells die, new ones are not created (the old Adam is gone. Today, we are new creations in Christ with the mind of Christ Jesus!). Please continue with this teaching by reading below 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 in the Message translation, and may the Holy Spirit open your eyes to the revelation knowledge of what Paul was teaching. 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 Message Translation 1-3 What I want to talk about now is the various ways God's Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often mis-understood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

4-11 God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:

wise counsel

clear understanding

simple trust

healing the sick

miraculous acts

proclamation

distinguishing between spirits

tongues

interpretation of tongues.

All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.

12-13 You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts-limbs, organs, cells-but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain-his Spirit-where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves-labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free-are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.

14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.

19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You're fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way-the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it's a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn't you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.

27-31 You are Christ's body-that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body":

apostles prophets teachers miracle workers healers helpers organizers those who pray in tongues.

But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you. The Way of Love (GOD) 1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives (the many membered body of Christ Jesus in the love of His identity), our incompletes will be canceled.

11 When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. 12 We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! 13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. Love is not something we do, but who we are in Christ Jesus... 19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (Galatians, Message).